Hazaribagh, Jan. 22: The 41km-long Hazaribagh-Barhi Road on NH-33, which started getting widened yesterday, has already faced a logjam.
An LPG bottling plant of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, which is along NH-33, has raised safety concerns.
Bottling plant officer Anand Kumar had shot a letter to Hazaribagh deputy commissioner (DC) on Friday, claiming the construction was in violation of disaster management plan and Explosives Act. According to the Act, the LPG refilling area of a bottling plant should be at a distance of 30 feet from its boundary wall, the letter said.
In his letter, plant officer Kumar had mentioned that the bottling plant was built on 5.58 acres as per the safety norms. “The boundary limit of an LPG bottling plant should be at least 30 feet away from the gas refilling area. If we have to bring the boundary wall closer by 10 feet, the distance between the refilling area and the highway will reduce to 20 feet, which can be unsafe for passing vehicles,” the letter read.
However, in 2013, the National Highways Authority of India had acquired around 10 feet land for the road widening project from this plant.
DC Ravi Shankar Shukla questioned the timing of the letter. “The land was acquired around four years ago and the plant given due compensation. The authorities have been asked to construct a new boundary wall, higher then the present one, if safety of the highway commuters is their prime concern,” he said.
Employees of the project implementing agency, Ramky Infrastructure, said they were, however, continuing with the construction. The NH-33 currently cuts the heart of the town. But as per the widening project, around 5km will be rerouted from Konar bridge to Canary Hill on the outskirts of Hazaribagh.
The HPCL bottling plant is located barely 500 metres away from Konar bridge.
There is another threat due to this road project. Around 300 trees in Canary Hill area will be axed. To this, however, Shukla said forests department would compensate the loss by planting new saplings elsewhere in the hill.
